Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Wild Mushroom Mac 'n Cheese - An Elaborate Production

If you've visited my blog more than twice, you know that I'm all about quick and all about easy. In fact the only time I ever get carried away is when I'm preparing a feast of one sort or another...like the Indian Feast I shared with friends or holiday celebrations. You also know we've been trying to get back on the South Beach Diet...disasterously so far, but I promise to change that in the next week or so. Here's my first journey...and a very successful one at that!

But back to this post....it's all about pasta, and as a prelude for the big Presto Pasta Night One Year Birthday party (that's next week...so you still have some time to decide on what you want to bring to the festivities. If you don't have a blog, but would love to share your most favorite pasta dish...just send it to me at ruth@4everykitchen.com and I'll write it up for you.

I love mushrooms and I love mac 'n cheese, so naturally my eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw a recipe for Wild Mushroom Macaroni & Cheese in this month's Gourmet Magazine. And please don't roll your eyes up to the ceiling when I say that I substituted 2% evaporated milk for the heavy cream...it was my attempt...however feable...to lower the calories in the dish.

And now to the real issue...time...and labor! This is not a difficult recipe, but...well, it took more than 2 hours...you read right...2 hours to get it ready for the 30 minutes in the oven. Of course, you could prepare it a day or so in advance, but still! Three sink loads of pots and pans and measuring things...are you getting the picture? For one dish?! Now some people will really enjoy the process, so this recipe is for you. And it really is sinfully rich and creamy. The mix of rehydrated porcini mushrooms, fresh cremini, shitaki and portobellos give a wonderful earthiness to the dish to balance the bechamel and cheese sauce. It's awesome! Really! So do invite me when you make it!

11 comments:

That sounds like a very rich dish--all those mushrooms and bechamel *yum* Save some for me...

I think my "over the top" dish would be lasagna. I've got a good one I'll be posting in the coming weeks (and of course, submit to PPN!)--home-made noodles, veal/sausage bolognese, bechamel...seems like I'm ready for dinner time, now! ;-)

Ruth, this is a perfect recipe for a mushroom lover like myself. Amazing and worth the trouble. I will have to try this. The only drawback about looking at wonderful food blogs like yours is you end up with an extensive list of recipes you want to make!

It's silly, but sometimes I can't think of what to make for dinner. Maybe I have too many recipes to choose from :)

Mushrooms do make this dish stellar, and I admit...even I might have to make some more!

As for having too many recipes...I know what you mean. Sometimes, looking around at my HUGE stash of magazines and close to 200 cookbooks, not to mention my bookmarked recipes...and don't even get me started about doing a google search...it all seems overwhelming and I kick in to autopilot.

As for Presto Pasta Night hitting the one year mark...I can't believe it either, but then again...what's better than pasta?